


Just Say The Word

by DontJudgeMeIShipIt



Category: Dancing with the Stars (US) RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 18:08:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5675566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontJudgeMeIShipIt/pseuds/DontJudgeMeIShipIt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek and Bindi are putting the final touches on the Viennese Waltz, and some unexpected emotions start cropping up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Say The Word

**Just Say The Word**

 

 

 

The lights dimmed in the small studio, signaling that the last of the dancers had left for the night.  Bindi wiped her sweaty palms against the fabric of her cotton tights and blew out a breath.  She and Derek had been working on this waltz all day.  First he’d taught her the basic steps to standard eight-counts, then they’d put each sequence together, and finally they’d danced the entire dance all the way through to the instrumental music.  It was a beautiful dance, set to a song Mark and his girlfriend had written together.  Derek had told her he wanted her to learn the dance all the way though before she heard the words to the song, so that she could really focus on their meaning and _feel_ the dance.  He’d said it was the quality he loved most about her dancing.

_You dance with your whole heart, Binds…unrestrained.  It’s beautiful to watch._

His words had caused an odd lurch in the pit of her stomach, followed by a warmth in her chest that spread all the way to her cheeks.  She didn’t know what to say when he said things like that to her, so she’d just mumbled a quiet thank you and feigned an intense interest in her battered feet.

She guessed waiting to hear the words to the song made sense…her body knew the steps now, and she felt that she could really allow herself to embrace the lyrics and emote unfettered…unrestrained, as he’d said.

“You ready, B?”  Derek’s hand landed in the middle of her back.  Her tank-top was thin, her sweat-dampened skin chilled in the air-conditioned room, and his palm was hot against her nearly-bare flesh.

“Yeah,” she replied, agreeably, but her throat was suddenly dry, and her voice rasped over the single syllable.

She walked to the center of the room, stepping lightly on tender feet.  When she reached the pool of dim light provided by the room’s lone amber spotlight, she stopped, took a deep steadying breath, and closed her eyes.

The music started just like before, only this time when Derek’s hand landed lightly on her right shoulder, a woman’s husky voice poured mournfully from the speakers in all four corners of the small studio.

_There’s something on my mind…_

Letting the music overtake her, Bindi moved her head from side to side, searching for Derek within the dark space behind her closed eyelids.  He was there with her…she couldn’t see him, but she could feel the heat from his body seeping into her skin.  His warm hands pressed against her collar bones, slipping along the length of her neck to cradle her jaws and pivot her head in a languid circle.  Her head tilted back under the guidance of his strong hands, exposing her throat and chest to the open air…to him. 

Then she was spinning, the centrifugal force pushing her away from him; however, before she went too far, he was pulling her back, his hands pressing against her chest, pressing her against him.  He rocked her back and forth, and she let him, listening to the song’s plaintive words as they vibrated through the room and thrummed against her skin.

_You’re miles away but your heart feels close by…_

She sensed herself being twirled and dipped and lifted, and then she felt Derek’s hands slip gently over her face, his fingers stroking whisper-soft over her closed eyelids, removing the make-believe cover from her eyes.  She blinked them open, and his face greeted her, smiling and handsome.  His eyes held hers, and there was an intensity in them that was both frightening and thrilling at the same time.

He took her hand, locked their frame, and they were off…twirling with the rhythm of the music, rising and falling with the cadence of the song.

_Roses are red, violets are blue…I know I’m meant to be with you…_

As they spun to a stop, facing each other, the lyrics reached her consciousness and her feet faltered. 

She shook her head, slightly.  He couldn’t have picked this song because…   It couldn’t mean anything…could it?

He pulled her against him, his hand on the back of her head, cradling her against his shoulder for the briefest instant…so brief, in fact, that she thought she might have only imagined it.

_Please don’t let me go…when we come and go…_

Her body dipped backward, her lower-half pressing intimately against his, gravity necessitating a mutual thrust of hips to bring her quickly upright again.  She felt color rise into her cheeks, and she was grateful for the brief reprieve when the dance required her to step, momentarily, out of his embrace.  It was only for a moment though, as she was already reaching for his hand, being pulled back to him like a rubber band snapping into place. 

_Distance can help hearts to grow…_

They crouched down, low to the polished wood floor and paused there.  His large hands spanned her ribcage and she felt sure he could feel her heart pounding against his open palms.  His left hand slipped down a fraction of an inch, having landed slightly higher on her body than its counterpart…just high enough to cup the gentle swell beneath the fabric of her tank top.  He seemed to falter then, his breath landing in hot, uneven puffs against her cheek.

There was a pause in the song as well, as if it, too, had faltered in the intensity of the moment.

In the vibrating silence left by the break in the song, they rose slowly to their feet, her hands gripping his neck and jawline, intimately, as if she were about to pull him to her and press her lips to his.  She felt him rest his forehead against hers, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight against the rush of emotions suddenly rising up inside of her.  She could smell the sweetness of his breath, could nearly taste the moist heat of it as it fanned her face. 

She wanted to see his eyes, but they were too near. 

They were cheek to cheek now, so close she could feel her lashes catching against the roughness of his five-o-clock shadow.  For the briefest of moments, she thought he might kiss her. 

She held her breath…

_Roses are red…_

The music exploded back to life around them, blaring from the speakers and propelling them into motion.  Derek started to turn and, dutifully, Bindi lifted her arms and extended her left leg straight out in front of her, allowing her body to fall backwards into his waiting hands.  She felt him lean back slightly, supporting her at the waist.  Planting her right foot, she pressed her hips forward, letting her weight fall onto his sturdy frame, fitting herself against him in an embrace more intimate than she’d ever experienced with another person. 

She felt the hard musculature of his thigh tense against the inner softness of her own.  He spun them faster, and she felt herself pressing impossibly closer, until her pubis settled snugly against the sharp jut of his hipbone. 

An unfamiliar jolt of pleasure throbbed low in her belly, and though she recognized it for what it was, it surprised her.  She tensed, momentarily, caught off guard by her body’s reaction to him.  She felt spread open and exposed, but to her surprise, it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. 

It felt like discovery…like sharing. 

She trusted Derek, loved him…she might even…she might even be…

She concentrated hard on the music, on the lyrics, on the dizzy, spinning sensation that was filling her body.  She wasn’t sure if the dizziness radiating through her was from the twirling or from her feelings for him, but whatever the cause, she gave herself over to it, relaxing into the turns and feeling the heavy, urgent push of her blood rushing toward her head and the tips of her outstretched fingers .

She was spinning and spinning and spinning until, finally, she felt herself being lowered carefully to the floor.  Their arms twisted and tangled purposefully, and then his strong hands were gripping hers, pulling her up and she was pushing off with her feet, arching her back and preparing to launch herself into his waiting arms.  She took a deep breath and let go of every ounce of restraint she possessed.  She closed her eyes, stretched her arms out toward him, and leapt with all of her strength.

She flew gracefully, with abandon.

And Derek was waiting there to catch her, scooping her up just before she could touch the floor.

She never even opened her eyes.  She’d known he wouldn’t let her fall.

They were spinning again now, faster than before, first one direction and then the other.

_One day I’m meant to be with you…_

Their eyes caught and held, and the look on his face nearly halted her feet mid-step.  Only his strong lead kept her mobile.  The room spun around them, but they continued to hold each other’s gaze.  He seemed to be trying so hard to communicate something to her.  She wished with everything in her he’d just say it, whatever it was, because her foolish little-girl heart wanted so badly to believe he was sending her some kind of message with this song, but her grown-up brain was insisting that she was way too young for him, and he would never be able to see her as anything more than a kid-sister.  He must have seen the hurt and confusion on her face, because he looked away then, purposefully avoiding her gaze for the last few turns. 

Their spins were slower now, more deliberate, and since he refused to look at her, she was given a rare opportunity in which to study him.

His brow glistened with a thin sheen of sweat.  A single lock of sandy, blond hair was stuck to his forehead, while the rest of his hair stood, charmingly, in reckless disarray.  His blue eyes stared, unseeing, over her left shoulder, and the muscle in his tightly-clenched jaw jumped every time their wide, sweeping turns caused her thighs to brush, softly, against his.

Finally, the music slowed, the piano’s notes plinking haltingly through the speakers in the dim room, guiding their measured turns to a grinding halt.

As the song’s final notes drifted in the air around them, he stepped forward, into her space.

They stood face to face, and he reached up, slowly, pretending to place the imaginary cover back over her eyes.  He paused, his large hands cupping Bindi’s face, gently.  She knew she was meant to close her eyes now, but something deep inside of her demanded that she meet this moment with eyes wide open.

So, she stared up at him, willing him to meet her gaze, and for the first time since he’d started deliberately avoiding eye contact, his eyes met hers. 

She sucked in a ragged breath.

She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that, this time, she was not imagining the look in his eyes.  She couldn’t have possibly conjured up such a raw emotion.  It scared her, because she could see him fighting it, could tell he didn’t want to be feeling it…but at the same time, it comforted her, because she knew it was real. 

She felt it, too.

The dizzy feeling she’d been experiencing during the dance surged up inside of her and she swayed a little on her feet, rocking toward him, unintentionally.  Her chest brushed ever so slightly against his, and his hands dropped quickly to her shoulders, steadying her and holding her just far enough away so that they were no longer touching, save his hands on her upper arms. 

He stared down into her eyes, his grip on her biceps tightening.

Her lips felt suddenly dry, her eyelids heavy…hooded, and she blinked slowly and licked her lips to alleviate the feeling.

His eyes dropped to her mouth.

Nervously, she bit her lip, working it between her teeth, self-consciously.

She felt a slight tug on her tank top and glanced down to find Derek worrying the fabric of the hem between his thumb and forefinger. 

His tell. 

He was nervous.  She made him nervous.  Bindi stopped chewing her lip. 

It couldn’t be.  He couldn’t…could he?

Hesitantly, she reached up and placed her hand against Derek’s cheek, feeling the stubbly growth there against the soft skin of her palm.  She was taking such a risk here…but she’d never been one to back down from a scary situation.  She held her ground, waiting for him to make a move, or to shrug her off, or to start struggling to find gentle words to let her down easy…

For a time he seemed frozen, but then he seemed to come to a sudden decision.  “Say it, Bindi,” he whispered, and his voice was a little pleading, a little desperate.

She knew what he meant. 

Their safe word. 

The one they were supposed to use when things got a little too intense.  But that word wasn’t for this.  It was meant to protect their hearts from painful things like memories of missing fathers and childhood hurts…not this.  This thing, whatever it was, was intense…but it was also good…and _right_.  She didn’t need to be kept safe from this.

She was a grown woman, now, capable of making decisions about her own life.  She wouldn’t say the word.  If he wanted to stop this thing that was happening between them, he was going to have to be the one to say it.

He stared down at her, his blue eyes wide with shock and dawning realization.

“Fuck,” he whispered, softly.


End file.
